Letter: War on poverty continues

Fifty years ago, President Johnson declared “War on Poverty.” Congress funded Head Start, Medicaid, a job corps., VISTA, and Medicare to assist children, the disabled, the poor, the unemployed and the elderly. Paying all Americans a living wage, still unrealized today, while providing an economic safety net were a...

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By Special to the Rockford Register Star

Rockford Register Star

By Special to the Rockford Register Star

Posted Jan. 27, 2014 at 5:15 PM

By Special to the Rockford Register Star

Posted Jan. 27, 2014 at 5:15 PM

Fifty years ago, President Johnson declared “War on Poverty.” Congress funded Head Start, Medicaid, a job corps., VISTA, and Medicare to assist children, the disabled, the poor, the unemployed and the elderly. Paying all Americans a living wage, still unrealized today, while providing an economic safety net were accepted goals. NYTimes estimates more than 90 percent of allocated government assistance isn’t fraudulent. Regardless, well-paid media talking heads cynically redirect the frustration of the disappearing middle class, refocusing blame on the truly needy that have even less.

We retreated from the war on poverty, neglecting the needed support and revitalization of our urban and rural communities; instead, sending young warriors and countless tax dollars to destructive foreign battlefields while poorer American neighborhoods devolved into violent urban battlefields of growing despair. Government must refocus assistance toward our neighborhoods. On April 4, 1967, exactly one year to the day before he was assassinated, Rev. King condemned the reallocation of tax dollars from minimizing poverty to maximizing war.

And so it continues.

Fifty years ago, Congress funded a “War on Poverty” to expand the middle class. Far too many Americans still live in or on the brink of poverty, many as close as a lost job or family medical emergency away. Today, Congress’ politics-driven inaction further shrinks the middle class, ignoring the many while serving the excess of the wealthiest few.